Rennie Gabriel

In the past, I’ve written about the difference between the attitudes of ordinary people compared to the attitudes of the wealthy. T. Harv Eker talks about the poor versus the rich. To me, that’s too black and white, demeaning, and because someone appears rich does not mean they are wealthy. You can see rich; fancy cars, fancy clothes, and fancy houses. You can’t see wealth; you don’t know if they have reserves, investment real estate, a large stock portfolio, or significant passive income. As an example, Eker says rich people think big and poor people think small. But what is big versus... Continue Reading

My wife is a residential Realtor® and recently sold a house to a developer. The original house that was built in 1950 will be torn down. The owner, who I will call Mr. Frugal, purchased it new just and recently went into an assisted care facility. My wife worked with both his children who were raised in the house, and the owner who has all his faculties at age 97. The children didn’t say he was frugal. They said he was cheap as can be. Like Scrooge McDuck. All of us live in a nice suburb of Los Angeles called Encino. Many of the homes around us are being purchased by developers and torn down... Continue Reading

You are not alone when you feel it’s difficult to spend money sometimes. If it’s difficult for you now, it will be even more difficult in retirement, or when you think you have Complete Financial Choice®. If you type into Google, “Why is it hard to spend money in retirement?” you’ll see 126 Million results. While I enjoy reading about the psychological barriers to spending money, you might rather appreciate how to overcome the blocks to spending money when you established that you have enough. First, be aware that undoing a lifetime of frugality is not easy to reverse. When you reach... Continue Reading

Chellie Campbell has a newsletter she sends out and has a program that I also respect. In a recent email she spoke about asking for too much: “Why don’t we ask for too much? Too much love, too much money, too much happiness, too much fun? How often do we restrict our reality to lower levels of possibility by not asking for enough?” She went on to talk about Alan Cohen in his book, A Deep Breath of Life. It tells the story of a man who died and went to Heaven. God was showing him around but one door he passed by saying, “You don’t want to go in there.” Of course, the man is curious,... Continue Reading

What happens when the company you are working for has to do layoffs and you lose a job? If that provided 100% of your income, you still have 100% of your bills, but zero income. What do you do? For me it was to be self-employed or establish a business. As I look back on my work life I can see I have been too insecure to be an employee for the reason stated above. I would live in fear of losing 100% of my income. And it did happen to me. After selling life insurance on a straight commission basis for about eight years I was hired as the director of pensions for an insurance company when I was around... Continue Reading

When it comes to handling money powerfully one of the attitudes of the wealthy is that they look at the big picture first, and the details second. If you heard the expression, can’t see the forest for the trees you heard an illustration of that concept above. However, for years that expression never made sense to me. Once I understood what the expression meant I created my own that made sense to me, and it may make more sense to you as well. Let’s say you were about to cross a busy street; there are the details and the big picture. If you focused on the details first as you crossed the street;... Continue Reading

If you’re having any financial struggles you first need to know it is not your fault. After discovering the solutions to my financial struggles I recognized it was not my fault. And I bet the same applies to you. Here are the reasons it’s not your fault: 1. How to handle money, write a check, save for the future, invest, and understand how to construct a budget – none of this is taught in school. 2. Parents can’t teach it either if they didn’t learn how to do it. 3. Society programs you to believe it is better to be poor than to be wealthy. Just look at Hollywood movies, TV shows, books,... Continue Reading

While you may have heard me talk about this in the past, I am constantly reminded of how often smart and educated people are not taking the most basic actions to create a better financial future for themselves. Very often when I am the guest on a podcast, radio or TV show I will put the host on the spot with some questions. The questions start with this one: “Have you heard of the expression, pay yourself first?” In every case the answer is, “Yes.” The next question is, “Can you explain what it means?” And now the fun begins: 9 out of 10 times they stumble around and get close, but... Continue Reading

You will see below an email I recently received in an attempt to have me call a phone number so a malicious virus can be downloaded to infect my smartphone. Let’s look at some of the clues this is a scam: 1. Using the phrase “actuated the subscription.” 2. Addressed to “Dear Client.” 3. Bad grammar and puctuation: “sub_scription have has been terminated.” 4. I could go on and on, but read it for yourself and you can see how bad the sentence structure is and silly phrases like the above and “interface on us.” There are so many scams that arrive by email and text you have to be... Continue Reading

Recently I was a guest on the podcast of Fred Diamond who focuses on sales training for women in large organizations. (You can find out more about that interview at the end of this post.)After being on the podcast and reading the transcript I was reminded of my unsuccessful career in sales.Maybe it would be considered successful to other people because I was earning over six figures in the 1990s, but it didn’t feel that way to me. Read an excerpt of the transcript below to understand what I am trying to say. ‘One of the things that I was confronted with personally, because I was in sales for... Continue Reading